It's in the evening after dark,
When the blackleg miner creeps to work,
With his moleskin pants and dirty shirt,
There goes the blackleg miner!
Well he takes his tools and doon he goes
To hew the coal that lies below,
There's not a woman in this town-row
Will look at the blackleg miner.
Oh, Seghill is a terrible place.
They rub wet clay in the blackleg's face,
And around the heaps they run a foot race,
To catch the blackleg miner!
So, dinna gan near the Delaval mine.
Across the way they stretch a line,
To catch the throat and break the spine
Of the dirty blackleg miner.
They grab his duds and his pick as well,
And they hoy them down the pit of hell.
Doon ye go, and fare ye well,
You dirty blackleg miner!
So join the union while you may.
Don't wait till your dying day,
For that may not be far away,
You dirty blackleg miner!
When the blackleg miner creeps to work,
With his moleskin pants and dirty shirt,
There goes the blackleg miner!
Well he takes his tools and doon he goes
To hew the coal that lies below,
There's not a woman in this town-row
Will look at the blackleg miner.
Oh, Seghill is a terrible place.
They rub wet clay in the blackleg's face,
And around the heaps they run a foot race,
To catch the blackleg miner!
So, dinna gan near the Delaval mine.
Across the way they stretch a line,
To catch the throat and break the spine
Of the dirty blackleg miner.
They grab his duds and his pick as well,
And they hoy them down the pit of hell.
Doon ye go, and fare ye well,
You dirty blackleg miner!
So join the union while you may.
Don't wait till your dying day,
For that may not be far away,
You dirty blackleg miner!
Contributed by Bartleby - 2011/5/13 - 11:45
A me invece i krumiri piacerebbero tanto, solo che non me li posso permettere (costano qualcosa tipo 18 Euri la scatola di 400g !!!)
Bartleby - 2011/5/13 - 11:49
È stato corretto il titolo "Blackleg Miner" al singolare. E sono state inserite un po' di immagini, oltre all'integrazione dei diversi commenti. E i video.
Dq82 - 2017/12/29 - 14:09
Ciao Dq82, va tutto bene, ma se il brano continua ad essere attribuito a Louis Killen, allora è inutile correggere al singolare, perchè nella sua versione il titolo è al plurale.
B.B. - 2017/12/29 - 22:13
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Trovata su English Folk Music
Testo pubblicato nel 1952 nel volume “Come All Ye Bold Miners - Ballads & Songs of the Coalfields” così come raccolto da A.L. Lloyd, in quegli anni protagonista insieme ad Ewan MacColl del revival della musica folk, dalla voce di un minatore del Durham.
Nel 1962 Louis Killen incise il brano nell’EP “The Colliers' Rant Mining Songs of the Northumberland-Durham Coalfield”
Seguirono le versioni di Ian Campbell Folk Group (1965, nell’album “Coal Dust Ballads”) e degli Steeleye Span (1970, nell’album “Hark! The Village Wait”).
L'ha interpretata anche Richard Thompson in 1000 Years of Popular Music
La canzone è un'invettiva piuttosto violenta nei confronti dei crumiri, durante gli scioperi dei minatori. Un brano molto, molto cantato anche nel corso del famoso “UK miners' strike” del 1984–1985.
Blackleg, scab, strikebreaker = crumiro.
Questo quanto scrisse Jack London sui Crumiri ("scab" o Blackleg"):
"After God had finished the rattlesnake, the toad, and the vampire, he had some awful substance left with which he made a scab. A scab is a two-legged animal with a corkscrew soul, a water brain, a combination backbone of jelly and glue. Where others have hearts, he carries a tumor of rotten principles. When a scab comes down the street, men turn their backs and angels weep in heaven, and the devil shuts the gates of hell to keep him out..."